Just Starting
- Thread starter zedalb
- Start date
Ok, first things first. If this was Star Wars, i would classify hunter class as "the wretched hive of scum and villiany". Why? It is the most newbie friendly class and it's very effective when played right so it attracts the instant gratification crowd. Hunters level very rapidly and with little effort, so most of the players using it have no goddamn clue how to play it beyond "send pet, turn autoattack on". Be prepared to be treated like a dumbass simply because of the class you play. That over with, lets move to actual mechanics.
Hunter is a DPS class. There are always more DPS classes than any other. People like seeing pretty numbers to increase value of their e-peen online. By "tank" your friend meant the following classes/specs - Protection Warrior. Protection Paladin. Death Knight. Feral Bear Druid. While a hunter's pet can tank anything when there is a 20 man raid supporting it, it is not a common practice and very few people can actually pull it off. Therefore if you want to "tank", hunter is not the right class for it. Do note, tanking is more involved than simply hitting/burning/stabbing things, therefore i would not recommend being a tank if you are just starting.
General WoW tips. Read up on classes beforehand. There are a myriad of FAQs for every single class on official WoW forums. Make sure you understand the role of your class. Learn every spell/skill your class has. Some of them might seem useless. Learn and use them anyways. Be polite, this is an MMORPG. You are playing with several thousand other people on your server cluster. Impressions are important. That said, feel free to put retards in their place, politely. For example, instead of "fuck off asstard", say "please fuck off you retarded piece of monkey feces". Lots of words confuse general WoW public because most of them are casual mouthbreathing abortion victims with at most 3 grades of schooling. Take up mining and herbalism for professions. Gather ore and sell it on AH, it is good money for a starting character. As you learn more about the game, you will understand the economy of your particular server better and adjust your professions accordingly.
Alright, work is calling so i have to go. If you have any specific questions, just ask them here and i and several other players will do our best to answer them.
Hunter is a DPS class. There are always more DPS classes than any other. People like seeing pretty numbers to increase value of their e-peen online. By "tank" your friend meant the following classes/specs - Protection Warrior. Protection Paladin. Death Knight. Feral Bear Druid. While a hunter's pet can tank anything when there is a 20 man raid supporting it, it is not a common practice and very few people can actually pull it off. Therefore if you want to "tank", hunter is not the right class for it. Do note, tanking is more involved than simply hitting/burning/stabbing things, therefore i would not recommend being a tank if you are just starting.
General WoW tips. Read up on classes beforehand. There are a myriad of FAQs for every single class on official WoW forums. Make sure you understand the role of your class. Learn every spell/skill your class has. Some of them might seem useless. Learn and use them anyways. Be polite, this is an MMORPG. You are playing with several thousand other people on your server cluster. Impressions are important. That said, feel free to put retards in their place, politely. For example, instead of "fuck off asstard", say "please fuck off you retarded piece of monkey feces". Lots of words confuse general WoW public because most of them are casual mouthbreathing abortion victims with at most 3 grades of schooling. Take up mining and herbalism for professions. Gather ore and sell it on AH, it is good money for a starting character. As you learn more about the game, you will understand the economy of your particular server better and adjust your professions accordingly.
Alright, work is calling so i have to go. If you have any specific questions, just ask them here and i and several other players will do our best to answer them.
I understand this is by far not my first mmorp and thank you .
tanking is taking the hits for any one i'm with
I heard a bear as a pet can make a solid tank and I can as a orc hunter be able to tank repsectably.
Is it possibel for me to tank using my pet and myself (orc hunter with axe) or because the tech trees are difrent for beastmaster warrior type set up diffrently I cant do it
I't an idea that can die if i cant do it .
Iv"e been reading several guide adn learning what i can do and one thing is bothering my does nightelf (race) have "Blink" it says so on the offical site but ive heard from a friend and from they dont have it and it isnt on other guides.
tanking is taking the hits for any one i'm with
I heard a bear as a pet can make a solid tank and I can as a orc hunter be able to tank repsectably.
Is it possibel for me to tank using my pet and myself (orc hunter with axe) or because the tech trees are difrent for beastmaster warrior type set up diffrently I cant do it
I't an idea that can die if i cant do it .
Iv"e been reading several guide adn learning what i can do and one thing is bothering my does nightelf (race) have "Blink" it says so on the offical site but ive heard from a friend and from they dont have it and it isnt on other guides.
A bear makes a half-decent tank for a leveling hunter, but no more than that. A hunter is not a tank class, it is one of those dime-a-dozen DPS classes, no way around that. While a hunter pet may function as a tank in a raid situation, those cases are less than 0.001% of the playerbase and require absurd gear from raids and a highly skilled group of players to pull it off successfully.
Secondly, there is no 'defense' tree for hunters. While talents from the Beastmastery tree may boost your pet's defense, it will not be enough to tank for other players due to insufficient threat generation.
Blink is a Mage spell, not something inherent to Night Elves.
tl;dr: If you attempt to tank as a hunter every other player in the game will laugh, call you rude names, and then proceed to put you on their ignore lists.
@LHK3K: I'm actually surprised Earek didn't try being a hunter tank, or did I happen to miss that particular bout of huntardity.
Secondly, there is no 'defense' tree for hunters. While talents from the Beastmastery tree may boost your pet's defense, it will not be enough to tank for other players due to insufficient threat generation.
Blink is a Mage spell, not something inherent to Night Elves.
tl;dr: If you attempt to tank as a hunter every other player in the game will laugh, call you rude names, and then proceed to put you on their ignore lists.
@LHK3K: I'm actually surprised Earek didn't try being a hunter tank, or did I happen to miss that particular bout of huntardity.
For one hunter's pets don't make good tanks during instances or raids, they don't have enough defense and probably the biggest is that they don't generate enough threat. A boss can quickly squash your pet and if it does survive it might not have enough threat to hold it's attention and ignore it. On the other hand pets make good tanks while trying to level up.
If you want to get started on tanking you'd want to pick paladin, warrior, or build a feral druid. Death Knights aren't an option for starting players since you're required to have a lvl 55+ character and Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Look up the guides in the official world of warcraft forums, wowhead.com wowwiki.com and wow.com are good resources to use in reading up on the game.
If you want to get started on tanking you'd want to pick paladin, warrior, or build a feral druid. Death Knights aren't an option for starting players since you're required to have a lvl 55+ character and Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Look up the guides in the official world of warcraft forums, wowhead.com wowwiki.com and wow.com are good resources to use in reading up on the game.
I think I may be of help here; I used to play hunter and tank.
Hunter is not a tank. Period. End of discussion. You will not, ever, tank for a group. That pet you get? That is the relic of old hunter mechanics. Let me explain.
When WoW first came out, the classes were different; Hunter VERY much so. Hunters did a -lot- of damage in a short amount of time. They were intended to do lots of front end physical damage; a kind of non-magic mage.
This was, however, a problem in player versus player (PvP) combat; a hunter could unload and 3shot someone in seconds.
(To show you just how much firepower there was, three abilities were used. Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Auto Shot.
Auto Shot would automatically shoot an arrow every X seconds, where X was the speed of your bow. It was the ranged version of autoattack.
Arcane Shot was an instant attack with a cooldown that would do large amounts of damage that went through armor.
Aimed Shot was, essentially, your hunter actually fucking aiming for once. It took 2.5seconds to aim and did a ton of damage.
A hunter would find their enemy, hit auto-shot, then aimed shot. The autoshot counter would be counting down to the next automatic shot. Aimed shot would be counting up to it's release. Both would, with the right bow, be shot off nearly simultaneously, instantly followed with a arcane shot. With 2.5 (Or 3.5, can't remember) seconds to prepare, a hunter could unleash a volley of damage.)
This unstoppable volley of damage was solved quite simply; create a deadzone. This 'deadzone' was from melee range (4 yards) to shooting range (10 yards). within this 6 yard "deadzone" the hunter could not shoot, or attack.
Hunter became an all or nothing class. Catch a guy, you win. But if they got your deadzone, you were dead. It was rather hard to get someone out of your deadzone (they didn't want to leave)
This pvp fix (which was awesome) created another problem for killing monsters though; you couldn't just attack them. So you got a pet, that would keep the monster's attention long enough for you to kill it.
Remember how I said it was meant to be a physical-damage mage? Mage's had a pet too, in beta for the exact same reason; the shade. they eventually just removed it, and increased mage firepower. Hunter firepower didn't get increased because hunters could take a hit better.
In burning crusade, hunter burst went down. Waaay down. too many people were too unskilled to exploit the deadzone, so they would die, leading to cries of overpowered hunters.
So the reason hunters got the deadzone was removed, yet we still had the deadzone. (That's called being fucked, by the way.)
Eventually, the deadzone was removed. Hunters really don't have a reason for a pet anymore, it's just there for extra damage.
tl;dr- Hunter is not a tank. Hunter pets are not a tank. They may have been at one point, but that is now no longer true.
If you wish to tank, roll a tank class. I suggest pally, but I also play one so I'm pretty biased.
Hunter is not a tank. Period. End of discussion. You will not, ever, tank for a group. That pet you get? That is the relic of old hunter mechanics. Let me explain.
When WoW first came out, the classes were different; Hunter VERY much so. Hunters did a -lot- of damage in a short amount of time. They were intended to do lots of front end physical damage; a kind of non-magic mage.
This was, however, a problem in player versus player (PvP) combat; a hunter could unload and 3shot someone in seconds.
(To show you just how much firepower there was, three abilities were used. Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Auto Shot.
Auto Shot would automatically shoot an arrow every X seconds, where X was the speed of your bow. It was the ranged version of autoattack.
Arcane Shot was an instant attack with a cooldown that would do large amounts of damage that went through armor.
Aimed Shot was, essentially, your hunter actually fucking aiming for once. It took 2.5seconds to aim and did a ton of damage.
A hunter would find their enemy, hit auto-shot, then aimed shot. The autoshot counter would be counting down to the next automatic shot. Aimed shot would be counting up to it's release. Both would, with the right bow, be shot off nearly simultaneously, instantly followed with a arcane shot. With 2.5 (Or 3.5, can't remember) seconds to prepare, a hunter could unleash a volley of damage.)
This unstoppable volley of damage was solved quite simply; create a deadzone. This 'deadzone' was from melee range (4 yards) to shooting range (10 yards). within this 6 yard "deadzone" the hunter could not shoot, or attack.
Hunter became an all or nothing class. Catch a guy, you win. But if they got your deadzone, you were dead. It was rather hard to get someone out of your deadzone (they didn't want to leave)
This pvp fix (which was awesome) created another problem for killing monsters though; you couldn't just attack them. So you got a pet, that would keep the monster's attention long enough for you to kill it.
Remember how I said it was meant to be a physical-damage mage? Mage's had a pet too, in beta for the exact same reason; the shade. they eventually just removed it, and increased mage firepower. Hunter firepower didn't get increased because hunters could take a hit better.
In burning crusade, hunter burst went down. Waaay down. too many people were too unskilled to exploit the deadzone, so they would die, leading to cries of overpowered hunters.
So the reason hunters got the deadzone was removed, yet we still had the deadzone. (That's called being fucked, by the way.)
Eventually, the deadzone was removed. Hunters really don't have a reason for a pet anymore, it's just there for extra damage.
tl;dr- Hunter is not a tank. Hunter pets are not a tank. They may have been at one point, but that is now no longer true.
If you wish to tank, roll a tank class. I suggest pally, but I also play one so I'm pretty biased.
Whoever told you your character gets a health boost as an orc is wrong. Tauren are the race that gets health boosts, though that's been toned way down (they only get a 5% increase on their base health, used to be total).
That said, any warrior or paladin with a 1-handed weapon and a shield and any idea of how to work the threat mechanics of his class can tank up to, what, mid/late 60s or early 70s if they're good? As can any Feral druid. Of these three classes, druids are the most versatile (since you can offspec into anything: ranged dps, melee dps (slightly different feral build than a tank, though tank builds can do decent dps as well), or healing), followed by paladins (can also melee dps and heal), followed by warriors (only melee dps). Like I said, though, tanking with any class requires knowledge of how to work the threat mechanics. Also, Warriors aren't great at tanking a bunch of crap at once. They used to be worse, but paladins and now bear druids (buttswipe!) are better still.
Read this article. Then, if you really want to tank, pick a class and read the article that's linked to from there about how to tank with that class.
That said, any warrior or paladin with a 1-handed weapon and a shield and any idea of how to work the threat mechanics of his class can tank up to, what, mid/late 60s or early 70s if they're good? As can any Feral druid. Of these three classes, druids are the most versatile (since you can offspec into anything: ranged dps, melee dps (slightly different feral build than a tank, though tank builds can do decent dps as well), or healing), followed by paladins (can also melee dps and heal), followed by warriors (only melee dps). Like I said, though, tanking with any class requires knowledge of how to work the threat mechanics. Also, Warriors aren't great at tanking a bunch of crap at once. They used to be worse, but paladins and now bear druids (buttswipe!) are better still.
Read this article. Then, if you really want to tank, pick a class and read the article that's linked to from there about how to tank with that class.
You'll also have to consider threat generation, all that health and armor isn't going to do you much good as a tank if you can't keep the monsters attention on you. You also need to do enough damage that the monsters would ignore the other attacks and focus on you fortunately there are talents, enchants, etc that can help generate more threat per damage so you can hold agro.
There's a lot you need to learn. I'll just a few bits until I get home, then I can expand a bit:
Aggro - short for Aggravation, and slang for "Threat". Basically, the more damage you deal, or if you're a healer, the more damage you heal, the more threat you generate and the more likely the enemy is going to target you. Tanks typically want to hold aggro to allow the squishier classes a better chance to survive; DPS and Healers want to avoid it like hell.
Since you're a hunter, once you've acquired a pet, you'll want to determine which of you will be holding Aggro. Some pets are better DPS', others are better Tanks.
Cooldown - Almost every ability in the game has one of these. It essentially prevents you from spamming said ability constantly. When an ability is in cooldown, you can't use it (DUH!). Most have a short cooldown, usually a second to five seconds, though some can have cooldowns of an hour or more.
Mats - Short for Materials. You'll probably see this term in Trade or General chat. It generally means you have something for a profession. (below)
"Greens", "Blues", "Purples", "Greys" - As you've no doubt noticed, every time you pick something up in wow, the name is typically a certain color. The color is essentially the overall quality of the item. The higher the quality, generally speaking, the better the item, though the level of the item is important too. The scale goes like so:
Grey - Typically the WORST items. With armor and weapons, unless you've got NOTHING in that armor/weapon slot, sell them or throw them. If it's not equippable, wave your cursor over it and you should see a value, and pitch it if it's not worth trekking back to town to sell it. Typically speaking, once you're about level 10, ignore anything that isn't worth double digits; after 15, start ignoring anything that isn't at least close to a silver in value; 30, ignore anything that isn't at least 25 silver; at 40, ignore anything that isn't half a gold; at 50; pitch anything isn't worth at least a gold.
White - If it's white, it's worth something. Even if the monetary value isn't high, it's likely usuable for a profession or a quest. Look it up on WoWhead or Thottbot if you aren't sure if you want to hold onto it.
Green - Greens have special abilities that will boost certain things, though not always things that are useful for your class. When you start seeing Green items, you'll start seeing things like "Bind on Equip" and "Bind on Pickup", and "Soulbound". Soulbound means that unless you throw it, disenchant it or sell it to an NPC merchant, it's stuck with you. Bind on Pickup will usually warn you that it will become Soulbound if you pick it up. Bind on Equip means that, so long as you don't put it on your character, you can put it up for Auction, which is where most players can make serious money (though a word of warning: you need to put a monetary deposit on the item if you put it up for auction, and you won't get it back if the item doesn't sell. Whether or not it sells, you should check the mailbox for messages from the auction house, where you can either get the item back if it didn't sell or you can collect your earnings if it did sell). Greens will sometimes come in sets, which give further boosts if you're wearing all of the pieces of the set, though getting all of them is typically a pain.
Blues - Blues are rares. If you've got a Blue, you've got something GREAT. Again, they're class-specific, so if you're in a party and you can't use it, ask around. If no one wants it, pick it up and sell it. Blues and Purples are more likely to have Bind on Pickup, but not always.
Purples - More rare than Blues and usually a great deal better. You'll almost never see these outside of an instance or a raid.
Tank - The meat shield. Their job is hold the enemy's attention. Dealing damage isn't as important for a tank, but surviving is. A tank is typically deemed a failure if the healers draw aggro. If you're in a party, the tanks are typically going to be the one with best armor and highest health; or the one with the highest level.
DPS - short for Damage Per Second. This is what mages, warlocks, and hunters are typically referred to. Your job is whittle away the enemy's health and, if the tank fails in their job, keep the attention off the healers, who'll be ressurecting the tank's stupid ass. Most, if not all, of the classes can DPS.
Healer - Priests, Druids, Shamans and Paladins can take this role. Their job is to keep the rest of the group, but most importantly the Tank, healed.
PVP - Player versus Player. If you're playing on a "Normal" Server, you can be flagged for PVP for about 5 minutes if you attack players outside of a duel or if you attack certain enemies. You can also be flagged if you heal or aid someone who's flagged for PVP. If you're marked PVP, be prepared for the possibility of a high level player running by and ganking you. Once the PVP marker runs out, players can no longer target you unless you're in a specific area or you trigger another PVP marker.
Instance - A special dungeon that you can either enter alone or with a party. You can usually learn where instances are and what their general level is via WoWHead or Thottbot. Don't worry if another group is near an instance, even if it's people from the opposite side (i.e. Alliance if you're Horde, or Horde if you're Alliance).... unless you're on a PVP server, then prepare for someone to attempt to gank you, even if you're much higher level.
Instances typically have very good gear, but most will have gear for certain types of classes, such as Cloth (which is for Mages, Warlocks and Priests), Leather (Rogues, Druids and Shamans), or Mail/Plate (Warriors, Paladins, Death Knights and high-level Shamans)
Spawn/Respawn - Enemies, minerals, items, just about everything that you can buy, grab or use can and usually will respawn within a certain amount of time. In instances, the time can vary greatly, as the larger instance
"Gank"/"Ganked"/"Raped" - Killed easily, usually by a high-level enemy or a rogue of the opposite side. Elites and rare spawns can occassionally gank an entire party if they spawn.
"Spec"/"Respec" - Once you reach level 10, a new icon will appear and you can start putting points into Talents. Talents all help you, but they're divided into three "trees", which allow you to determine what your character is best at. As a Hunter, there's Marksman (best if you like to sic your pet on the enemy), Beast Master (improves your pets abilities greatly) or Survival (best if you're going to tank with your pet DPSing.)
DOTs/HOTs - Damage Over Time/Heal Over Time.
DOTs are what Hunters and Warlocks do best. These will constantly sap away an enemy's health over a set period of time (usually less than a minute), even if they try to flee, though you can reapply them to reset the timer. I like to refer to DOTs as "A Personal 'Fuck You' To Cowards". :evil: Warlocks, Priests, Hunters and Druids have a lot of these. Paladins and Rogues have some abilities which can do this as well.
HOTs are what Healers can do. They're similar to a DOT in that they heal over time. Druids and Priests have these, though almost all of the healing spells that a Druid has are HOTs, whereas Priests, Shamans and Paladins all have spells that simply heal in one big go.
You can pick up two primary Professions, as well as all Secondary Professions and I strongly suggest you get all secondary professions available.
Secondary Skills:
First Aid - Allows you to make bandages. Bandages provided HOTs, but have a cooldown as well. Best of all, Bandages can be used on allies as well. As you create bandages, you will be able to make better types of bandages which heal more. The only drawback is that you shouldn't use this too much if you're following Tailoring (which you should only do if you're a cloth-using class, like Priest, Warlock or Mage), since both use the same materials.
Fishing - The most boring, but fundamentally the most useful for anyone who solos or has a pet that eats fish. You can earn a lot of quick cash early on with this innocuous skill, though you can't fish everywhere automatically. Most areas have a "level" that you can fish at, though I'm uncertain if they changed that since Burning Crusade. ;;^_^;;
Cooking - The creation of food and perhaps the BEST secondary skill, since the food you make can give you the Well Fed buff, which boosts your strength and stamina for a short while. Fishing is a huge help in getting materials for this profession.
Primary Skills:
Tailoring - A talent for taking various types of cloth and making them into wearable items. Best if paired with Enchanting, since it can create enchantable items as well as Greens/Blues, which can be disenchanted for enchanting materials or further boosted with enchantments.
Enchanting - Offers you the ability to toss permanent boosts on various types of equipment. The limitations can really suck though. Best if paired with Tailoring.
Skinning - allows you to skin various beastial enemies for leather or hide for Leatherworking. If you take Leatherworking and you don't take Skinning, you are a moron. Skinning also provides some materials for Tailoring or Jewelcrafting, but not much.
Leatherworking - Very useful for leather-wearing classes like Hunters, since you can usually make armor that's good for your level or even stuff you can't wear until you level up.
Mining - Useful if you decide you're going to go into Jewelcrafting or Blacksmithing. Creates Ore and Stones, both of which are useful.
Jewelcrafting - Make various items which can benefit you or friends. you get most of your materials from mining or Alchemy.
Blacksmithing - Allows you to make mail/plate armor as well as various weapons. Best if paired with mining.
Alchemy - Create various potions.
Herbalism - Needed to gather herbs for Alchemy or Inscription.
Inscription - I know nothing about it. ;;^_^;;
A suggestion: If you don't want to do Leatherworking/Skinning or you want to make a lot of money with the Auction House, I'd suggest picking two gathering skills, like Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning.
Aggro - short for Aggravation, and slang for "Threat". Basically, the more damage you deal, or if you're a healer, the more damage you heal, the more threat you generate and the more likely the enemy is going to target you. Tanks typically want to hold aggro to allow the squishier classes a better chance to survive; DPS and Healers want to avoid it like hell.
Since you're a hunter, once you've acquired a pet, you'll want to determine which of you will be holding Aggro. Some pets are better DPS', others are better Tanks.
Cooldown - Almost every ability in the game has one of these. It essentially prevents you from spamming said ability constantly. When an ability is in cooldown, you can't use it (DUH!). Most have a short cooldown, usually a second to five seconds, though some can have cooldowns of an hour or more.
Mats - Short for Materials. You'll probably see this term in Trade or General chat. It generally means you have something for a profession. (below)
"Greens", "Blues", "Purples", "Greys" - As you've no doubt noticed, every time you pick something up in wow, the name is typically a certain color. The color is essentially the overall quality of the item. The higher the quality, generally speaking, the better the item, though the level of the item is important too. The scale goes like so:
Grey - Typically the WORST items. With armor and weapons, unless you've got NOTHING in that armor/weapon slot, sell them or throw them. If it's not equippable, wave your cursor over it and you should see a value, and pitch it if it's not worth trekking back to town to sell it. Typically speaking, once you're about level 10, ignore anything that isn't worth double digits; after 15, start ignoring anything that isn't at least close to a silver in value; 30, ignore anything that isn't at least 25 silver; at 40, ignore anything that isn't half a gold; at 50; pitch anything isn't worth at least a gold.
White - If it's white, it's worth something. Even if the monetary value isn't high, it's likely usuable for a profession or a quest. Look it up on WoWhead or Thottbot if you aren't sure if you want to hold onto it.
Green - Greens have special abilities that will boost certain things, though not always things that are useful for your class. When you start seeing Green items, you'll start seeing things like "Bind on Equip" and "Bind on Pickup", and "Soulbound". Soulbound means that unless you throw it, disenchant it or sell it to an NPC merchant, it's stuck with you. Bind on Pickup will usually warn you that it will become Soulbound if you pick it up. Bind on Equip means that, so long as you don't put it on your character, you can put it up for Auction, which is where most players can make serious money (though a word of warning: you need to put a monetary deposit on the item if you put it up for auction, and you won't get it back if the item doesn't sell. Whether or not it sells, you should check the mailbox for messages from the auction house, where you can either get the item back if it didn't sell or you can collect your earnings if it did sell). Greens will sometimes come in sets, which give further boosts if you're wearing all of the pieces of the set, though getting all of them is typically a pain.
Blues - Blues are rares. If you've got a Blue, you've got something GREAT. Again, they're class-specific, so if you're in a party and you can't use it, ask around. If no one wants it, pick it up and sell it. Blues and Purples are more likely to have Bind on Pickup, but not always.
Purples - More rare than Blues and usually a great deal better. You'll almost never see these outside of an instance or a raid.
Tank - The meat shield. Their job is hold the enemy's attention. Dealing damage isn't as important for a tank, but surviving is. A tank is typically deemed a failure if the healers draw aggro. If you're in a party, the tanks are typically going to be the one with best armor and highest health; or the one with the highest level.
DPS - short for Damage Per Second. This is what mages, warlocks, and hunters are typically referred to. Your job is whittle away the enemy's health and, if the tank fails in their job, keep the attention off the healers, who'll be ressurecting the tank's stupid ass. Most, if not all, of the classes can DPS.
Healer - Priests, Druids, Shamans and Paladins can take this role. Their job is to keep the rest of the group, but most importantly the Tank, healed.
PVP - Player versus Player. If you're playing on a "Normal" Server, you can be flagged for PVP for about 5 minutes if you attack players outside of a duel or if you attack certain enemies. You can also be flagged if you heal or aid someone who's flagged for PVP. If you're marked PVP, be prepared for the possibility of a high level player running by and ganking you. Once the PVP marker runs out, players can no longer target you unless you're in a specific area or you trigger another PVP marker.
Instance - A special dungeon that you can either enter alone or with a party. You can usually learn where instances are and what their general level is via WoWHead or Thottbot. Don't worry if another group is near an instance, even if it's people from the opposite side (i.e. Alliance if you're Horde, or Horde if you're Alliance).... unless you're on a PVP server, then prepare for someone to attempt to gank you, even if you're much higher level.
Instances typically have very good gear, but most will have gear for certain types of classes, such as Cloth (which is for Mages, Warlocks and Priests), Leather (Rogues, Druids and Shamans), or Mail/Plate (Warriors, Paladins, Death Knights and high-level Shamans)
Spawn/Respawn - Enemies, minerals, items, just about everything that you can buy, grab or use can and usually will respawn within a certain amount of time. In instances, the time can vary greatly, as the larger instance
"Gank"/"Ganked"/"Raped" - Killed easily, usually by a high-level enemy or a rogue of the opposite side. Elites and rare spawns can occassionally gank an entire party if they spawn.
"Spec"/"Respec" - Once you reach level 10, a new icon will appear and you can start putting points into Talents. Talents all help you, but they're divided into three "trees", which allow you to determine what your character is best at. As a Hunter, there's Marksman (best if you like to sic your pet on the enemy), Beast Master (improves your pets abilities greatly) or Survival (best if you're going to tank with your pet DPSing.)
DOTs/HOTs - Damage Over Time/Heal Over Time.
DOTs are what Hunters and Warlocks do best. These will constantly sap away an enemy's health over a set period of time (usually less than a minute), even if they try to flee, though you can reapply them to reset the timer. I like to refer to DOTs as "A Personal 'Fuck You' To Cowards". :evil: Warlocks, Priests, Hunters and Druids have a lot of these. Paladins and Rogues have some abilities which can do this as well.
HOTs are what Healers can do. They're similar to a DOT in that they heal over time. Druids and Priests have these, though almost all of the healing spells that a Druid has are HOTs, whereas Priests, Shamans and Paladins all have spells that simply heal in one big go.
You can pick up two primary Professions, as well as all Secondary Professions and I strongly suggest you get all secondary professions available.
Secondary Skills:
First Aid - Allows you to make bandages. Bandages provided HOTs, but have a cooldown as well. Best of all, Bandages can be used on allies as well. As you create bandages, you will be able to make better types of bandages which heal more. The only drawback is that you shouldn't use this too much if you're following Tailoring (which you should only do if you're a cloth-using class, like Priest, Warlock or Mage), since both use the same materials.
Fishing - The most boring, but fundamentally the most useful for anyone who solos or has a pet that eats fish. You can earn a lot of quick cash early on with this innocuous skill, though you can't fish everywhere automatically. Most areas have a "level" that you can fish at, though I'm uncertain if they changed that since Burning Crusade. ;;^_^;;
Cooking - The creation of food and perhaps the BEST secondary skill, since the food you make can give you the Well Fed buff, which boosts your strength and stamina for a short while. Fishing is a huge help in getting materials for this profession.
Primary Skills:
Tailoring - A talent for taking various types of cloth and making them into wearable items. Best if paired with Enchanting, since it can create enchantable items as well as Greens/Blues, which can be disenchanted for enchanting materials or further boosted with enchantments.
Enchanting - Offers you the ability to toss permanent boosts on various types of equipment. The limitations can really suck though. Best if paired with Tailoring.
Skinning - allows you to skin various beastial enemies for leather or hide for Leatherworking. If you take Leatherworking and you don't take Skinning, you are a moron. Skinning also provides some materials for Tailoring or Jewelcrafting, but not much.
Leatherworking - Very useful for leather-wearing classes like Hunters, since you can usually make armor that's good for your level or even stuff you can't wear until you level up.
Mining - Useful if you decide you're going to go into Jewelcrafting or Blacksmithing. Creates Ore and Stones, both of which are useful.
Jewelcrafting - Make various items which can benefit you or friends. you get most of your materials from mining or Alchemy.
Blacksmithing - Allows you to make mail/plate armor as well as various weapons. Best if paired with mining.
Alchemy - Create various potions.
Herbalism - Needed to gather herbs for Alchemy or Inscription.
Inscription - I know nothing about it. ;;^_^;;
A suggestion: If you don't want to do Leatherworking/Skinning or you want to make a lot of money with the Auction House, I'd suggest picking two gathering skills, like Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning.
I'll fill in the info akun50 missed, which was info on Inscription and the Engineering skill.
Inscription - Inscription allows you to mill five of certain herbs for pigments, which make inks for your crafting. You make glyphs, which can fill spots on a special grid found on your talent menu. Glyphs upgrade various abilities for your class and others, sort of like a personal enchant. In addition, you make scrolls and Vellum. Vellum is useful for enchanters to put the enchants on. Most scrolls are temporary character buffs and tend to resell at decent prices. However, Scroll of Recall acts as a consumable extra Hearthstone which makes quest turn-ins far easier. Like alchemy and enchantment, you later get a skill that can discover new recipes. The research ability also randomly generates some kind of scroll or vellum.
Engineering - Engineering allows the player to make various devices that have degrees of usefulness. Guns for hunters, rogues, and warriors can be made as well as the ammunition. Some headgear has been made as well, but those actually require a subsequent Engineering skill to wear. Bombs, some pets, the awesome motorcycle mount (Mechano-hog/Mekgineer's Chopper), and the ever popular Goblin Jumper Cables can only be made by Engineers. Almost all ingredients for the class come from Mining, though Leatherworkers do provide certain important ingredients for your schematics.
Inscription - Inscription allows you to mill five of certain herbs for pigments, which make inks for your crafting. You make glyphs, which can fill spots on a special grid found on your talent menu. Glyphs upgrade various abilities for your class and others, sort of like a personal enchant. In addition, you make scrolls and Vellum. Vellum is useful for enchanters to put the enchants on. Most scrolls are temporary character buffs and tend to resell at decent prices. However, Scroll of Recall acts as a consumable extra Hearthstone which makes quest turn-ins far easier. Like alchemy and enchantment, you later get a skill that can discover new recipes. The research ability also randomly generates some kind of scroll or vellum.
Engineering - Engineering allows the player to make various devices that have degrees of usefulness. Guns for hunters, rogues, and warriors can be made as well as the ammunition. Some headgear has been made as well, but those actually require a subsequent Engineering skill to wear. Bombs, some pets, the awesome motorcycle mount (Mechano-hog/Mekgineer's Chopper), and the ever popular Goblin Jumper Cables can only be made by Engineers. Almost all ingredients for the class come from Mining, though Leatherworkers do provide certain important ingredients for your schematics.
You're thinking of the wrong kind of pet. The engineer's temporary combat pets (the battle chicken (lasts 90 seconds on a 5 or 10 minute cooldown), the dragonlings (again, long cooldown), the exploding sheep (hilarious, but not worth it to even make them above low levels)) are worthless above level 60 or so (since they have their own levels... the chicken, for example, is level 55). They're fracking awesome for leveling below there. There are a few non-combat pets that engineers can make, too, though, and I will say that the goggles are fairly nice for most classes, though unlike in TBC (where the goggles were, for me anyway, better than anything before the second raid tier, and had an upgrade that you could get the pattern for as a drop in the last raid), once you get to the end of the game, the goggles are quickly surpassed by just about anything out of a raid in terms of headwear. Before that, though, engineering goggles are usually the best head-slot item you can find, barring a few exceptions here and there.
The motorcycle, though, requires about 12,500 gold to make, and every engineer in the game was supremely pissed off about that, since without goggles that rival top-end gear and without any other way to make gold, unlike before, they were severely underpowered for the first raid tier of Wrath. Then they got a few buffs to the tinkers (which are pretty good, actually) and a new repair bot (and then another new one in 3.2). On the other hand, the engineer's flying mounts (helicopters!) only take 0 and 100 gold for the 160% and 280% speed mounts respectively if you farm all your own mats or have someone who can give you the mats you need for free. They're a bit more than that if you buy mats to make them.
If you go with Inscription, you'll be spending all sorts of gold on herbs, unless, again, you have someone feeding you.
I'd recommend one of two things for your professions. If you have somebody feeding you mats, I'd go with Jewelcrafting and Enchanting. Jewelcrafting gives you special jewelcrafter-only epic gems at upper levels, which give higher stats than the other epic gems, and allows you to make some nice trinkets and rings. Enchanting gives you two things: a cash source while you're leveling, and the ability to enchant your rings. A leveling enchanter, when they get a new piece of green or better gear, asks themselves, "Is this an upgrade?" If it's not, they disenchant it, turning it into enchanting mats, which they can then use to enchant their items or sell to other enchanters. If your feeder is REALLY nice in terms of feeding you metals, go Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing, which will give you extra gem slots to go with those special gems.
If you don't have somebody feeding you mats, go Mining/Jewelcrafting or Mining/Engineering until 80. If you go Mining/JC, you get stamina boosts (mining gives the passive ability "Toughness" once you get it above level... 75 I think... which gives extra stamina, and goes up when you hit certain profession levels) and the aforementioned extra gem slots, trinkets, and rings. You can also mine gems, stone, and metal ores, which you can then either sell if you're past the jewelcrafting level to use, or use them in jewelcrafting. Mining/Engineering, you get most of the mats you need to level engineering, you'll only have to buy a few leathers and other stuff here and there, and engineering has some very nice benefits as you level, though they level off once you get to 80.
edit: and yes, Tauren Warrior, unless your friends play Alliance, in which case you might want to go Dwarf or Draenei.
The motorcycle, though, requires about 12,500 gold to make, and every engineer in the game was supremely pissed off about that, since without goggles that rival top-end gear and without any other way to make gold, unlike before, they were severely underpowered for the first raid tier of Wrath. Then they got a few buffs to the tinkers (which are pretty good, actually) and a new repair bot (and then another new one in 3.2). On the other hand, the engineer's flying mounts (helicopters!) only take 0 and 100 gold for the 160% and 280% speed mounts respectively if you farm all your own mats or have someone who can give you the mats you need for free. They're a bit more than that if you buy mats to make them.
If you go with Inscription, you'll be spending all sorts of gold on herbs, unless, again, you have someone feeding you.
I'd recommend one of two things for your professions. If you have somebody feeding you mats, I'd go with Jewelcrafting and Enchanting. Jewelcrafting gives you special jewelcrafter-only epic gems at upper levels, which give higher stats than the other epic gems, and allows you to make some nice trinkets and rings. Enchanting gives you two things: a cash source while you're leveling, and the ability to enchant your rings. A leveling enchanter, when they get a new piece of green or better gear, asks themselves, "Is this an upgrade?" If it's not, they disenchant it, turning it into enchanting mats, which they can then use to enchant their items or sell to other enchanters. If your feeder is REALLY nice in terms of feeding you metals, go Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing, which will give you extra gem slots to go with those special gems.
If you don't have somebody feeding you mats, go Mining/Jewelcrafting or Mining/Engineering until 80. If you go Mining/JC, you get stamina boosts (mining gives the passive ability "Toughness" once you get it above level... 75 I think... which gives extra stamina, and goes up when you hit certain profession levels) and the aforementioned extra gem slots, trinkets, and rings. You can also mine gems, stone, and metal ores, which you can then either sell if you're past the jewelcrafting level to use, or use them in jewelcrafting. Mining/Engineering, you get most of the mats you need to level engineering, you'll only have to buy a few leathers and other stuff here and there, and engineering has some very nice benefits as you level, though they level off once you get to 80.
edit: and yes, Tauren Warrior, unless your friends play Alliance, in which case you might want to go Dwarf or Draenei.
There's another alternate: if you don't mind checking out how the other classes play, you could always run a few alts alongside your main to pick up various other Professions.
It'll take a lot longer though, and probably eat up a lot of bag space, since when I did it, I was frequently stumbling across good gear, items and patterns that my alts could use later on. ;;^_^;;
I tend to think of my characters as a support network when I'm leveling all of them.
Oh, and if you're hard up for cash later on, I'd suggest trying out the new Random Dungeon feature, where you essentially pick if you're want to be mainly the Tank, Healer or DPS; since it gives you a nice item, some good XP and some gold if you complete it, even if you are essentially in a PUG group, but you're always in a group in a dungeon that's appropriate for YOUR LEVEL, so you don't need to worry too much about getting raped unless you're incredibly undergeared for enemies of your level.
Whatever the case, unless you're max level, you'll always be gaining XP and potentially stuff you can use or sell.
If you have anyone you want to play with on the same server, the two (or more) of you should party up, then use the feature. So long as you're close in level (i.e. within 1-2 levels), you'll always wind in the same party a dungeon that's appropriate for the lower of your party. A friend of mine and I have been doing that and ALWAYS wound up in the same instance and the same party.
My level 52 Priestess got some very nice boots (blues even ) for each of the two Random Dungeons we did (and my friend's run a total of 5 dungeons since the patch completed and got equally nice stuff, not just boots like I did (though each pair had different bonuses)), and from what I've seen, you can get all sorts of nifty gear. My friend has declared he's going to level a number of other characters only through this new Random Dungeon feature. :lol:
Though this is info you probably won't use until you're at least level 15 or so.
It'll take a lot longer though, and probably eat up a lot of bag space, since when I did it, I was frequently stumbling across good gear, items and patterns that my alts could use later on. ;;^_^;;
I tend to think of my characters as a support network when I'm leveling all of them.
Oh, and if you're hard up for cash later on, I'd suggest trying out the new Random Dungeon feature, where you essentially pick if you're want to be mainly the Tank, Healer or DPS; since it gives you a nice item, some good XP and some gold if you complete it, even if you are essentially in a PUG group, but you're always in a group in a dungeon that's appropriate for YOUR LEVEL, so you don't need to worry too much about getting raped unless you're incredibly undergeared for enemies of your level.
Whatever the case, unless you're max level, you'll always be gaining XP and potentially stuff you can use or sell.
If you have anyone you want to play with on the same server, the two (or more) of you should party up, then use the feature. So long as you're close in level (i.e. within 1-2 levels), you'll always wind in the same party a dungeon that's appropriate for the lower of your party. A friend of mine and I have been doing that and ALWAYS wound up in the same instance and the same party.
My level 52 Priestess got some very nice boots (blues even
) for each of the two Random Dungeons we did (and my friend's run a total of 5 dungeons since the patch completed and got equally nice stuff, not just boots like I did (though each pair had different bonuses)), and from what I've seen, you can get all sorts of nifty gear. My friend has declared he's going to level a number of other characters only through this new Random Dungeon feature. :lol:Though this is info you probably won't use until you're at least level 15 or so.
One thing to consider is getting a dedicated Bank alt with its own personal guild. Generally people are happy to sign your guild charter if you give them some money. That Guild tab is nice to keep things you might want later on (like BoE greens for diesenchanting, enchanting mats, cloth/leather/ore/etc that you cant have a use for now but you might need later on.
Piece of advice coming from someone who's been playing WoW for a long, long time:
Ignore most of the info that's been spammed at you in this thread (basically everything except Akun50's posts). Class and raid info won't help you a damn bit when you haven't even gotten into the game yet.
Pick a race, whichever jumps out at you. Ditto for class. Play the game, level. Learn the mechanics. Talk to people. Get in a guild.
Figure out how items, enchants, professions work. Do a few instances to learn how to play your class in a group.
WoW is a fairly easy game to learn as the scale goes, but thanks to being five years old with multiple expansions (each of which virtually resets the game), there is a metric fuckton of information to learn.
Honestly, it's best not to think of trying to tank out the gate. Dps classes are easy to learn, easy to play. Tanking requires a lot more knowledge to be effective, which you won't really pick up until you learn the mechanics of the game itself.
To give an example of needed knowledge that you simply don't have:
You mentioned war stomp as a pro of being a tauren tank. One of the things you didn't know is that war stomp has a cast time. If you are casting, you cannot avoid hits(dodge/parry/block/raw avoidance from defense). Not a big deal in lower instances, but this will get you gibbed in harder heroics and raids when the boss smacks you several times in the space of a few seconds.
Ignore most of the info that's been spammed at you in this thread (basically everything except Akun50's posts). Class and raid info won't help you a damn bit when you haven't even gotten into the game yet.
Pick a race, whichever jumps out at you. Ditto for class. Play the game, level. Learn the mechanics. Talk to people. Get in a guild.
Figure out how items, enchants, professions work. Do a few instances to learn how to play your class in a group.
WoW is a fairly easy game to learn as the scale goes, but thanks to being five years old with multiple expansions (each of which virtually resets the game), there is a metric fuckton of information to learn.
Honestly, it's best not to think of trying to tank out the gate. Dps classes are easy to learn, easy to play. Tanking requires a lot more knowledge to be effective, which you won't really pick up until you learn the mechanics of the game itself.
To give an example of needed knowledge that you simply don't have:
You mentioned war stomp as a pro of being a tauren tank. One of the things you didn't know is that war stomp has a cast time. If you are casting, you cannot avoid hits(dodge/parry/block/raw avoidance from defense). Not a big deal in lower instances, but this will get you gibbed in harder heroics and raids when the boss smacks you several times in the space of a few seconds.
Very true.
A few pointers I'll throw out for tanking, once you've got a feel for it:
Almost all defense techniques and various blocking abilities usually only work when you're facing the enemy. Only things like Divine Shield, Frost Armor and Inner Fire are omnidirectional.
Stamina and Armor are CRITICAL to being a tank. The more stamina you have, the more health you have. The more armor you have, the less damage the enemy can do to you.
Secondarily, Spirit and Strength are good to have too. The more spirit you have, the faster your natural regeneration is (sure, your natural regen is suspended during combat but having a high spirit means that you can jump back into the fray faster with a higher chance of survival, especially if an enemy suddenly aggros to someone squishier in your party).
The more Strength you have, the more damage you deal and the more likely you're keep Aggro.
Learn what skills can interrupt spells. Interrupts are VERY helpful against spell-casting enemies, and while they don't seem too powerful to start, any number of enemy mages, warlocks and priests supporting another enemy can seriously fuck your tanking up.
Every one of the three primary tanking classes (Warrior, Paladin, Death Knight) has their own means of pulling enemies to them.
Of them, I'd have to say, Death Knights and Paladins have the most useful skills for tanking, since their AOEs, since they're sustained, tend to catch the attention of anyone who enters them (meaning allies being attacked simply have to enter the AOE area to have a higher chance to send the enemy's aggro to the tank, where it belongs).
Also Paladins gain Hand of Reckoning (which punishes a targetted enemy for not paying attention to the paladin with holy damage) as well as Righteous Fury (a "permanent" enchantment on yourself which amps up the threat/aggro generated by the paladin's spells until you turn it off or die), Devotion Aura (which increases the armor of all nearby allies), Judgement of Light and Seal of Light (both of which make it so that enemy attacks might heal you instead of hurting you, though the latter is a seal which is cast upon yourself and last about 30 minutes), Judgement of Justice (enemies can't flee to aggro more enemies to you and your squishy allies), Holy Wrath (which sends holy energy in all directions up to 20 yards, doing holy damage and stunning all Undead and Demons within 10 yards for 3 seconds), and Righteous Defense, which forces up to three enemies to pay attention to you instead of your allies, all of which are instants, meaning you can keep blocking while using them.
I'd strongly suggest going Protection "spec" if you do go with a Paladin, since you also get Blessing of Sanctuary, and Greater Blessing of Sanctuary, which boost armor of allies further; and Holy Shield which improves your chance to block by 30% for 10 seconds and does holy damage to the enemy for each successful block.
Avoid using Exorcism except as an opening spell, even if it is tempting since it does good damage and crits automatically on undead, since it eats up time and as Dementist said, you won't be blocking; and DON'T use Divine Shield on yourself, since that lowers your aggro, causing the enemies to hunt down your allies.
Death Knights have Death Grip, which can rip enemies from your squishy allies and pull them directly to you, which can be insanely helpful. They can also summon up a ghoul which acts like a hunter's pet, except it doesn't need to be fed.
Death Knights and Warriors probably have more skills suited to tanking, but I just got my Death Knight yesterday and I don't play warriors, so i don't know their skills as well. ;;^_^;;
If you pick up a warrior, I'd suggest following herbalism and alchemy, since you can create a very handy potion called a Rage Potion, which means you can wield many of the warrior's abilities faster and more often in a hurry.
Potions have a combined cooldown. That means, if you chug one, you can't use ANY until that cooldown goes away. Food and drink, on the other hand, can be eaten constantly (though you should let one finish before eating another, if possible, since you'll mostly just waste the first otherwise)
If you're going to be a hunter with a tank pet, I'd look into Beast Mastery builds and make sure you keep your pet fed so it's happy, since it does 125% damage when it's happy. AND ALWAYS HAVE FOOD ON HAND.
Don't worry if your pet "dies", since by the time you'll want to run any instances, you should have a spell to revive it.
A few pointers I'll throw out for tanking, once you've got a feel for it:
Almost all defense techniques and various blocking abilities usually only work when you're facing the enemy. Only things like Divine Shield, Frost Armor and Inner Fire are omnidirectional.
Stamina and Armor are CRITICAL to being a tank. The more stamina you have, the more health you have. The more armor you have, the less damage the enemy can do to you.
Secondarily, Spirit and Strength are good to have too. The more spirit you have, the faster your natural regeneration is (sure, your natural regen is suspended during combat but having a high spirit means that you can jump back into the fray faster with a higher chance of survival, especially if an enemy suddenly aggros to someone squishier in your party).
The more Strength you have, the more damage you deal and the more likely you're keep Aggro.
Learn what skills can interrupt spells. Interrupts are VERY helpful against spell-casting enemies, and while they don't seem too powerful to start, any number of enemy mages, warlocks and priests supporting another enemy can seriously fuck your tanking up.
Every one of the three primary tanking classes (Warrior, Paladin, Death Knight) has their own means of pulling enemies to them.
Of them, I'd have to say, Death Knights and Paladins have the most useful skills for tanking, since their AOEs, since they're sustained, tend to catch the attention of anyone who enters them (meaning allies being attacked simply have to enter the AOE area to have a higher chance to send the enemy's aggro to the tank, where it belongs).
Also Paladins gain Hand of Reckoning (which punishes a targetted enemy for not paying attention to the paladin with holy damage) as well as Righteous Fury (a "permanent" enchantment on yourself which amps up the threat/aggro generated by the paladin's spells until you turn it off or die), Devotion Aura (which increases the armor of all nearby allies), Judgement of Light and Seal of Light (both of which make it so that enemy attacks might heal you instead of hurting you, though the latter is a seal which is cast upon yourself and last about 30 minutes), Judgement of Justice (enemies can't flee to aggro more enemies to you and your squishy allies), Holy Wrath (which sends holy energy in all directions up to 20 yards, doing holy damage and stunning all Undead and Demons within 10 yards for 3 seconds), and Righteous Defense, which forces up to three enemies to pay attention to you instead of your allies, all of which are instants, meaning you can keep blocking while using them.
I'd strongly suggest going Protection "spec" if you do go with a Paladin, since you also get Blessing of Sanctuary, and Greater Blessing of Sanctuary, which boost armor of allies further; and Holy Shield which improves your chance to block by 30% for 10 seconds and does holy damage to the enemy for each successful block.
Avoid using Exorcism except as an opening spell, even if it is tempting since it does good damage and crits automatically on undead, since it eats up time and as Dementist said, you won't be blocking; and DON'T use Divine Shield on yourself, since that lowers your aggro, causing the enemies to hunt down your allies.
Death Knights have Death Grip, which can rip enemies from your squishy allies and pull them directly to you, which can be insanely helpful. They can also summon up a ghoul which acts like a hunter's pet, except it doesn't need to be fed.
Death Knights and Warriors probably have more skills suited to tanking, but I just got my Death Knight yesterday and I don't play warriors, so i don't know their skills as well. ;;^_^;;
If you pick up a warrior, I'd suggest following herbalism and alchemy, since you can create a very handy potion called a Rage Potion, which means you can wield many of the warrior's abilities faster and more often in a hurry.
Potions have a combined cooldown. That means, if you chug one, you can't use ANY until that cooldown goes away. Food and drink, on the other hand, can be eaten constantly (though you should let one finish before eating another, if possible, since you'll mostly just waste the first otherwise)
If you're going to be a hunter with a tank pet, I'd look into Beast Mastery builds and make sure you keep your pet fed so it's happy, since it does 125% damage when it's happy. AND ALWAYS HAVE FOOD ON HAND.
Don't worry if your pet "dies", since by the time you'll want to run any instances, you should have a spell to revive it.
It's possible. It's also possible to have a raid of nothing but 25 paladins or 25 druids and still succeed. It's a gimmick that's done for kicks by highly skilled players massively outgearing the content they're running with a tank pet.
Your pet is used for three things:
1. Helping you level. When soloing, send your pet it to occupy the monster while you attack from the distance.
2. Extra damage in instances. Sic your pet on the monster the tank is focusing on. It will add it's own damage while you plug away with arrows.
3. Harassing other players in pvp. Nothing is more annoying and potentially deadly to a caster than having an over sized cat eat your face while you try to cast.
And if you're a hunter, then you do not tank. While hunters are excellent at kiting monsters, they die very, very quickly when attempting to tank. They can only wear chain mail armor or weaker, so they don't have the armor or hp to take a hit.
Your pet is used for three things:
1. Helping you level. When soloing, send your pet it to occupy the monster while you attack from the distance.
2. Extra damage in instances. Sic your pet on the monster the tank is focusing on. It will add it's own damage while you plug away with arrows.
3. Harassing other players in pvp. Nothing is more annoying and potentially deadly to a caster than having an over sized cat eat your face while you try to cast.
And if you're a hunter, then you do not tank. While hunters are excellent at kiting monsters, they die very, very quickly when attempting to tank. They can only wear chain mail armor or weaker, so they don't have the armor or hp to take a hit.